Strategies to Use in the Classroom

*Executive Functioning Skills in the Classroom  

*WHAT IS EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING? 

“Executive function is a set of mental processes that helps connect past experience with present action.

People use it to perform activities such as planning, organizing, strategizing, paying attention to and

remembering details, and managing time and space.” By

NCLD Editorial Staff

*MOUNTAIN TOP VIEW ANALOGY

When you stand on top of the mountain you see the Big Picture,

but when you are at the bottom of the mountain you see the details that need to be prioritized and organized.

A one-size-fits all, generic approach to self-monitoring and self-checking is not effective because different students make different types of mistakes in

their math, reading and writing.When you, as the teacher, impart the skills of self-monitoring as self-checking,

you empower your students to analyze their approach to learning and, by association give them tools to navigate though life more successfully.

*ZOOM LENS ANALOGY

When you use a camera on a wide angle setting you see the Big Picture,

and then you can ZOOM in for a closer look at the details.It is a fluid motion: • Sometimes you want a far away view.• Sometimes you need a closer look.

Teacher can embed develop their own approaches and strategies within their classrooms and require these self-monitoring strategies to be incorporated as a vital aspect of everyday learning.

Executive Functioning Skills: 

• Goal Setting and Planning

• Organizing

• Remembering

• Shifting and Flexible Problem Solving

• Self-Monitoring and Self-Checking

• Emotional Self-Regulation

What is Goal Setting? A learner’s ability to identify a guiding purpose for his actions, based on an awareness of personal strengths and limitations and a clear vision of the desired result. Goal setting requires organization, taking the big picture into account, as well as the smaller steps. In life and education, goal setting is critical for success.

 

What foundations do we need for goal setting?Self understanding of own learning styleUnderstanding the big pictureValuing the taskProximal, specific and appropriately challenging goals 

*Goal Setting

How do we teach strategies for goal setting?Through classroom accommodations (scaffolds)Direct systematic instruction 

What foundations do we need for planning and prioritizing?Accurate knowledge of timeAccurate knowledge of tasksPrioritizing tasksMonitoring progress

 

How do we teach strategies for planning and prioritizing?Explicit strategy instructionSystematic reduction of teacher supportMaking the expectation clear that assignments should be planned and organized

Specific Organizational Strategies That Should be Taught Explicitly:

Organizing Space Materials

Organizing IdeasGoal Setting

Planning

Organizing Space and Materials

Elementary School

From elementary on, teachers should model how to organize. From the first several weeks of school, the teacher and students can discuss organizational structure of the classroom space and materials.      

o Use the structure consistently

o Teachers can promote independence in the classroom by prompting students to think about how to find things within the organization of the classroom

o Evaluate the structure

o As students become familiar with the organizational structure within the classroom, initiate discussions that encourage students to think about how the structure works for them

o Adjust the structure with the input of the students.

After experiencing the organizational structure of the classroom, students can then apply this process to their own organization of personal space by using these four metacognitive steps:

o Say how to organize (i.e., a student might say “OK, I am organizing my desk.  First, I need to make groups of things that go together.  I can put papers in my folder…”

o Use the structure consistently

o Evaluate the structure: “Is it working or not?”

o Adjust the structure: “How can I make it work better?”

Acronym for remembering: Say Use Evaluate and Adjust (SUE-A)

Who helps us organize? SUE-A helps us organize!

Middle School & High School

Students in middle school still need guided practice and cueing to a great extent. One challenge is the way they manage their lockers. Incoming middle school students may benefit from models and explicit examples of ways in which to organize their lockers. Once different ways of organizing lockers have been shown to students, they can choose a method and try it. Again, they can use SUE-A: they can verbalize their method (say it aloud), use it consistently, evaluate its effectiveness over time, and adjust the system to match their individual learning styles.

Strategies for managing papers could include:

o  Requiring students to date every paper they are given

o Model two or three effective systems for organizing papers. Require students to choose and use one system consistently

o  Apply SUE-A

o  Weekly folder/backpack/locker check (middle school and for those who continue to need it in HS)

o   Weekly feedback given

Organizing ideas Expository and Narrative information

Early Elementary (K – 3) In the early grades, pictures can be used to foster a student’s ability to distinguish between main ideas and details.

  Bottom up tasks (children who are bottom up processors tend to start with the details and then shift to the main idea). For these tasks, you could use the following approach:

o   Present the student with a variety of related pictures and several possible main idea statements.

o   Have the student look for commonalities between the pictures.

o   The student will consider the possible main idea statements and select the one that best expresses the main idea.

o   To take this to a higher level, the student can generate their own main idea statements after comparing the pictures.

Top down tasks

Children who are top down processors tend to see the “big picture” before the details.

For these tasks, you could use the following approach:

o   Present the student with a picture and a title. The title is the main idea statement.

o   Ask guided questions to elicit details and inferences from the student.

o   To take this to a higher level, the student can generate their own questions to find relevant details.

Types of rock Formed by magma Formed by heat and pressure

Formed by other rocks

Granite + - -

Slate - + -

Coal - - +

Limestone - - +

Sort for meaning: vocabulary- Students can use semantic features charts to help them categorize, and discuss words and concepts related to the chosen word.

Upper Elementary, Middle, and High School (Grade 4 and up)

In these grades, it is important that the teacher promote the ability to sort, categorize and organize the information that has been taught.

Sort for meaning: text- When students practice identifying and applying organization patterns found in expository text it promotes reading comprehension and written expression.

 Some cues that teachers can use:

For Reading

• “What do you notice about the way the information is organized?”

• “What clues do we see?”

• “Why did the author organize the information in this way?”

For Written Language

• “What question are you being asked to answer?”

• “How can you organize your ideas to help the reader understand your answer?”

•  “Are you being asked to express your opinion, compare two things, or give an explanation?”

• Organizing for reading comprehension and writing

Identifying the main idea

When main ideas are not explicitly stated, think aloud can model and cue students through the thinking process. This will help students to generalize the skills to independent learning situations. Teachers can cue students to help them decide if their main idea is too specific, too general, or a perfect fit. Next are cueing questions that teachers can use to guide students.

* Metacognitive Cueing for Determining Main Idea

o Do you notice any words or phrases that are repeated again and again?

o How do all the sentences relate? How are they similar, or what do they have in common?

o  If you had to give a category name for these details, how would you label them?

o  Does your main idea tell about all of the details, or only some of them?

o  Could you make your main idea more specific?

o   How did you select the main idea?

Organizing for Writing

There are several specific writing strategies that have been proven to be effective for helping students to effectively write.

   The Please Strategy

Pick a topicList your ideas about the topicEvaluate your listActivate the paragraph with a topic sentenceSupply supporting sentencesEvaluate your list

  TREE

A technique for brainstorming ideas for composing persuasive essays

§  Identify audience and purpose for writing

§  Develop a plan and use TREE

Topic sentenceReasonsExamine each reasonEnding

§  Write and continue the processing of planning while writing

STOP and DARE A strategy for brainstorming both sides of an issue for a persuasive essay

STOP • Suspend judgment• Take a side• Organize ideas• Plan more as you write

DAREProvides a reminder of the essential parts of the persuasive

essay

• Develop a topic sentence• Add supporting details• Reject arguments for the other side• End with a conclusion

Skim: Look at…

• Chapter objectives• Headings/subheadings• Bold/ italicized words• Margin notes and sidebars•  All visuals and caption s• Summary questions at end of chapter

RAP

•  Read all parts of each section•  Ask questions (turn each heading and subheading into a question)•  Paraphrase

MAP

•  Set up two column notes•  Write the RAP questions on the left, and map the answers on the right

Two Column notes (Write the main idea, question, or term in the first column. In the second column, write the details, answers, or definition. )

Question/TermsAnswers/Definitions

Who was Napoleon Bonaparte?

* Note Taking

Questions Answers

Who was Napoleon Bonaparte? • 1800 French general whose political ambition and military skill caused fear across Europe.

• Conquered neighboring countries.

Who was Toussaint L’ouverture? • Ruled Island of Haiti, Napoleon tried to take over (1802) as a supply base, but was conquer by Toussaint’s troops.

• Key role in finding Haiti

Why did leaders become suspicious?

• Napoleon once again owned Louisiana and knew the French could block the westward growth of the U.S. Blocking trade so the French had control over the Mississippi River.

Learning to Write a Thesis Statement

Thesis statements are difficult for students to write because they have to organize their ideas and go beyond the text.

The PROVE strategy can help students organize their ideas

Present your knowledgeReveal informationOffer examples or explanationsVerify your knowledgeExpress your knowledge in a summary statement

Supporting the Thesis Effectively

The Pieces of a Thesis Strategy provides students with a structure and process for developing five paragraph essays.

Topic or Argument

Reason 1 Reason 2 Reason 3

Evidence a

Evidence b

Evidence c

Evidence a

Evidence b

Evidence c

Evidence a

Evidence b

Evidence c

Conclusion

The ability to retain, retrieve, and mentally manipulate information is essential for learning. The use of research-based memory strategies, provides students with tools to overcome their working memory weaknesses and increase their academic success.

*Remembering

*Shifting and Flexible Problem Solving

"Students need to learn why and how they can approach academic tasks flexibly, so they can shift easily from the top of the mountain to the bottom."

*Embedding Shifting Strategies

1. Introduce and define shifting strategies.2. Model strategies.  Explain what, when, and how to shift.3.Provide opportunities for active student learning.4.Reinforce shifting strategies by embedding opportunities into

the curriculum.5.Reflect on students' use of specific strategies.6.Extend flexible strategies to other academic areas and tasks.

 

*5 Minute Warm-Ups

• Present ambiguous sentences, jokes, or riddles.

• Ask students to categorize words in different way (e.g. part of speech, meaning, vowel patterns)

• Ask students to create different endings for books they read

• Play word and math logic games (e.g. Sudoku)

*Language

1.Teach students to recognize and analyze ambiguities in words and sentences, and to shift between different meanings.  Teach students to do the same with multi-meaning words.

2.Overtly link these strategies to reading and writing.

*Reading Decoding and Spelling

1.Teach students when to use phonics vs sight vocabulary.2.Provide tasks where students shift between both.  Ask

students to verbalize the difference.3.Teach students to use knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and

related words in spelling.

*Reading Comprehension

1. Teach how to differentiate main ideas from important details and less relevant details.

 2.  Triple Note Tote to help students shift from main ideas to details. 

Question/Term Answer/Definition Strategy

What are the steps of Photosynthesis?

1. Water and nutrients from stem

2. Light from sun shines on leaves

*Written Language

1.Provide graphic organizers for sorting main ideas vs supporting details.

2.Provide models for shifting from main ideas to supporting details.

3.Provide templates that help students focus on major themes, details, and conclusions.

*Math Problem Solving

1.Teach students to shift from the language in word problems to the computational details and back again.

2.Teach students to focus on the meaning of the problem (top of the mountain) vs operations/calculations (bottom of the mountain).

3.Teach that estimating answers helps students focus on the big picture, and that comparing this to their final answer focuses on details.

*Studying and Test Taking

1.Help students create different study plans for different subjects and different formats (e.g. essay vs multiple-choice.)

2.Help students shift from writing to editing using personalized checklists of their common errors.

3.Triple Note Tote when studying for tests.

*Summarizing, Note Taking, Long-Term Projects

1.Help students shift between homework due immediately and long term projects by using weekly and monthy calendars and setting short-term due dates for portions of long term projects.

2.Teach students to extract main themes and paraphrase in their own words when taking notes.

3.Use Triple Note Tote to help students shift from main themes to details and back again.

*Shifting MindsetsWhat is 20% of 80?                    16 is what percent of 80? _____________________________________

John earns the following scores on his English tests: 82, 90, 76, and 87.  What is his average test score for the semester? _____________________________________ Rachel's average test score is 89.  She earned the following scores on three tests: 92, 88, 81.  What score did she earn on the fourth test? 

*Shifting Study Plans

                MathMake a flash card for each different type of problem.  Include...• Name of problem• How to recognize it• Steps to solve it• Example• Strategy for remembering

 Make a practice test with examples of each type of problem.

Reading• Write one or two sentences

summary of each chapter in the novel.  Identify important quotes and examples from each chapter.

• Review class notes.• Try to predict the essay

question. Create an outline for a response.

*Self-Monitoring and Self-Checking

Self-monitoring is:     "The superhuman effort to stop, reflect, check and correct multiple draft of works." 

 "When students self-monitor they review their progress towards

goals, evaluate the outcomes and redirect their efforts when needed."

It is important to learn to self-monitor in order to:

• emphasize the value of reviewing work• put less emphasis on the product• put more emphasis on the process• reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed with the process of learning• foster a "growth mindset" to value persistence and effort• embrace that learning is dynamic and constantly evolving and

changing  

And most importantly...

make kids in charge of their learning by reviewing their progress, evaluating the outcome and managing to redirect their efforts when needed.

Students need systematic, structured and scaffolded instruction in using self-monitoring strategies flexibly (shift back and forth between the product and the process) so that they can be independent learners.  

Continually prioritizing, organzing, and reorganizing complex information allows a student to optimally use their executive functioning strategies and keep the "funnel unclogged" and information flowing.

The following suggestions may be helpful for teachers and can be adapted to the needs of different groups of students:

* How Can Teachers Create a Classroom Culture Where Students Self-Monitor and Self-Check?

1. Help students develop their own daily checklists to remind them to complete their homework, bring their homework to school, and hand their assignments to their teachers.

2. Encourage students to tape prompts to their lockers, so they remember to take the correct books and assignments to each class and the appropriate materials home for homework.

3. Help students to internalize the reasons for their successes or failures appropriately. Attribute successes to their hard work and appropriate use of strategies, and failures to their lack of strategy use rather than lack of ability (Elliot & Dweck, 2005).

4. Base feedback to students on their strategy use and effort, rather than on their final answers to questions.

5. Teach students how to shift mindsets and approaches so they can identify and correct their own errors.

6. Make self-monitoring and self-correcting requirements rather than options.

7. Make self-monitoring and self-correcting COUNT! Require students to use strategy reflection sheets to list the strategies they have used in their homework and on tests.

8. Give students bonus points or credit toward their grades for finding and fixing mistakes on homework assignments and tests.

9. Allow students to refer to their strategy notecards and personalized error checklists during tests.

10.0Give students additional time on tests to check and correct their work.

11. Provide students with additional credit if they show evidence of using checking strategies.

12. Introduce students to ideas that help them switch to a self-checking mindset and to focus their attention on the self-checking process. Examples of ideas that have been helpful in clinical setting, but are not yet evidence based, include the following.

• Shifting materials. Give students concrete cues that can help them switch to a learning mindset (e.g., students can switch from one pen or pencil to another with a different grip or color when they check their work).

• Shifting the medium. For example, encourage students to change from the computer to a hard copy in order to check and correct work

• Shifting from silent to oral reading. Encourage students to read a written piece aloud, so that they have oral cues to help them identify and correct their errors.****Pg. 164 Promoting Executive Function in the Classroom. by Lynn Meltzer***

*Reading StrategiesWord Attack Skills 

 

Comprehension-Fiction

• Margin notes personalize it!

• Summarize with post-it notes

Comprehension-Nonfiction• Change sections headings into questions

(list an example)

*Writing Strategies

Shift from writer to editor

• Use a different color pencil for writing and another for editing

• Read the work out loud

• Edit a hard copy if it is computer drafted

*Math StrategiesShift from

"math problem solver“ to

"math checker“

• A symbolic way to represent this shift is to use one color pencil for problem solving and a different color pencil when checking the work

Error Analysis• The micro view is skill specific.  Kids can calculate,

categorize and see patterns in their mistakes. 

Develop a personalized checklist

Possible crazy phrases

Rowdy Chimps Enjoy Checkers and Chess

Ravenous Chickens Eat Crunchy Cheerios 

The macro view is non-skill specific.  It helps kids categorize and quantify individual errors in order to see patterns

  

This helps students prepare for future homework and tests by identifying specifically where the errors occurred

Word Problem Analysis

• This is especially challenging to students as this requires them to shift flexibly between numbers and words.

Example of a crazy phraseRowdy Chimps Enjoy Checkers and Chess

Read: Did I read the question carefully?Circle: Did I circle the keywords and relevant numbers?Estimate: Did I estimate the answer?Calculate: Did I calculate correctly?Compare: Did I compare my estimate to my answer? Is my answer reasonable?

Word Problem Analysis

This is especially challenging to students as this requires them to shift flexibly between numbers and words.

• Read: Did I read the Question carefully?

• Circle: Did I circle the keywords and relevant numbers?

• Estimate: Did I estimate the answer?

• Calculate: Did I calculate correctly?

• Compare: Did I compare my estimate to my answers? Is my answer reasonable?

• Develop a personalized checklist

Show example of a crazy phrase or mnemonic with a suggestion of writing the personalized information on the top of homework and tests.

• Macro view-non-skill specific

Revision helps categorize and quantify individual errors in order to see more global errors in content, structure and organization.

*Test taking Strategies

*Emotional Self Regulation

Defined as the ability (internal process) to manage and control emotions, trigger levels and positive and negative moods. Emotional Self Regulation1. Situation selection (ability to interpret the context one encounters)

2. Situation modification (ability to use one's thinking and problem solving skills to change the emotional impact)

3. Attention deployment (ability to shift focus from the emotional trigger to thinking)

4. Cognitive change (ability to think through and reinterpret a situation thus changing emotional response)

Shifting occurs.5. Response modulation

(ability to use strategies to diminish emotions) Interpret and regulate.

*Impact of Emotional Regulation in the Classroom

Attention Concentration Memory Shift Use Strategies Inhibition Processing

 too much

 or 

too little 

anxiety 

and/or 

 ability

*Strategies1.Formal Emotion Based Curriculum

 - A program with scheduled sessions by topic 2.  Emotional Regulation Instruction

        -Validating emotions        -Strengthening awareness        -Sharing relevant information in context        -Coaching students        -Practice of impulse control regular basis            (when not in challenging situations)

*Strategies to Help Anxious Students Calm Themselves

1.Labeling and normalizing anxiety2.Remind students of past successes3.Teaching effective self talk strategies (distressing-

different for each child)4.Help student shift focus (a viewpoint, big picture time frame)5. Student self evaluates.

Reference's:

• Promoting Executive Function In The Classroom by Lynn Meltzer

• Brain Cogs- The Personal Interactive Coach for Learning and Studying by Dr. Lynn Meltzer and Dr. Bethany Roditi

• MetaCOG- Metacognitive Awareness Assessment System. by RILD

• Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, Second Edition: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention (The Guilford Practical Intervention in Schools Series) by Peg Dawson EdD and Richard Guare

• Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary "Executive Skills" Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare